Place and Time: Abingdon, September 22, 2016  from 19:00 for 19:30

Barn Room, Crown and Thistle (18 Bridge St, Abingdon OX14 3HS)

TITLE: The Weather in Space – The Sun’s Impact on Earth

Speaker: Richard Harrison, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)

The UK has long been a world-leader in solar physics research, developing instrumentation that has flown on major space missions for many years. Our understanding of the Sun has been revolutionised in recent years, but it has also driven a parallel interest in the hazards of space weather to the extent that it is even listed on the UK’s National Risk register! Solar activity impacts the space environment around our planet and there are many activities underway to address this both on the research side and in terms of operational space weather forecasting. RAL has been at the core of these activities and has been involved in space observations of the Sun for over 50 years. This talk with briefly outline that history but will focus on the activity of our local star and its impacts on Earth.

Professor Richard Harrison is Head of RAL Space Physics Division and Chief Scientist for RAL Space. He has been a space scientist for 34 years specializing in solar physics research, with research interests in solar mass ejection processes, coronal structure and impacts on the heliosphere and near-Earth space. He is the Principal Investigator for space instrumentation aboard NASA and European Space Agency spacecraft and has been responsible for developing and operating space-borne instrumentation and aspects of space strategy and management continuously since 1992.